http://www.nwanews.com/adg/story_Outdoors.php?storyid=48149
Man charged with killing elk
BY TREY REID
Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2003
A Berryville man has been charged with illegally killing a 6x6 bull elk on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Gene Rush Wildlife Management Area in north-central Arkansas, AGFC officials said.
Christian Rosales, 24, was charged in the incident and faces a fine of no less than $5,000 for killing the elk. His weapon also was seized.
Rosales, who was charged Nov. 9, said he thought the 600-pound elk was a whitetail deer. "That was his confession," said Sgt. Kevin Thomas, the AGFC wildlife officer who responded to an anonymous telephone tip that someone was poaching elk on the WMA. "That’s like the difference between a goat and a horse."
Other hunters in the area alerted local law enforcement officers when they heard the shots and saw the crippled elk.
According to wildlife officers, Rosales initially denied he had shot the elk. After a short time, Rosales confessed to killing the bull.
In his confession, Rosales claimed he was sitting in his tree stand when he thought he saw a deer about 130 yards away. Rosales said he shot the animal with a 30-30 rifle with a scope, trailed it, and then shot it again.
Rosales was hunting with two other people about 1.5 miles east of Pruitt, near the Buffalo National River near the junction of Newton County roads 78 and 204.
AGFC officers performed a necropsy on the elk at the scene and discovered it had at least three gunshot wounds on its body. Bullets from a 30-30 rifle were retrieved from the dead elk.
Rosales is scheduled to be arraigned in Newton County Circuit Court on Dec. 22. Penalties for a conviction of taking an elk out of season include a fine of no less than $5,000 fine, the possibility of having the weapon confiscated and the possibility of losing hunting privileges.
